WASHINGTON – Former FBI director James Comey on Thursday accused President Donald Trump of firing him to try to undermine the bureau’s investigation into possible collusion between his 2016 presidential campaign team and Russia.
In the most eagerly anticipated US congressional hearing in years, Comey told lawmakers the Trump administration had lied and defamed him and the FBI after the president dismissed him on May 9.
During more than two hours of testimony, Comey told the Senate Intelligence Committee he believed Trump had directed him to drop an FBI probe into the Republican president’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn as part of the broader Russia investigation.
Comey nevertheless did not make any major new revelations about alleged links between Trump or his associates and Russia, an issue that has dogged the president’s first months in office and distracted from his policy goals such as overhauling the US healthcare system and making tax cuts.
Dressed in a dark suit and giving short, deliberative answers, Comey painted a picture of an overbearing president who he did not trust and who pressured him to stop the FBI investigating Flynn.
After Trump fired Comey, the administration gave differing reasons for his dismissal. Trump later contradicted his own staff and acknowledged on May 11 he fired Comey because of the Russia probe.
Asked why he thought Trump fired him, Comey said he did not know for sure. But he added: “Again, I take the president’s words. I know I was fired because of something about the way I was conducting the Russia investigation was in some way putting pressure on him, in some way irritating him, and he decided to fire me because of that.”
But Comey would not say whether he thought the president sought to obstruct justice but did say that Flynn was “in legal jeopardy” with the FBI investigation.
“I don’t think it’s for me to say whether the conversation I had with the president was an effort to obstruct. I took it as a very disturbing thing, very concerning,” Comey told the committee.
Trump’s personal lawyer, Marc Kasowitz, said Comey’s testimony proved the president was not under any investigation and there is no evidence a single vote was changed as a result of Russian interference in last year’s election.
Kasowitz denied Trump ever told Comey he needed and expected his loyalty, as Comey said, and also slammed the former FBI chief for saying he leaked details of a conversation with the president. Kasowitz added that “we will leave it the appropriate authorities” to determine whether Comey’s leak “should be investigated along with all those others being investigated”.
Comey’s accusations could further mire Trump’s administration in legal difficulties, as special counsel Robert Mueller, appointed by the Justice Department after Comey was fired, and several congressional committees investigate alleged Russian efforts to influence the election.
Russia has denied such interference. The White House as denied any collusion. (Reuters)
